Especially in the field of industrial mass production painting, it is typical to use an automatic color switching device, when a given series of the same or similar workpieces are to be painted with different colors. Such color switching devices for use in connection with painting equipment and particularly spraying equipment are generally known, and are shown and described in German Patent Laying Open Document 4,342,128 (Sonnleitner et al.), for example.
Since it is absolutely necessary that a respective type-pure paint of the proper type is provided at the paint application point at any given time, the conduit or line conveying the respective paint and all components of the equipment that come in contact with the paint must be adequately cleaned in order to ensure an absolute paint-type purity when switching over from one paint to another. The effort involved in draining, flushing and otherwise readying the equipment in this context is substantial. The situation is made worse because considerable quantities of paint which are present in the paint supply line and/or the associated components of the equipment, are lost or wasted whenever the equipment is switched over from one paint to another.